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Trade in wood and forest products spans the global supply chain. Illegal logging and associated trade in forest products present a persistent threat to vulnerable ecosystems and communities. Illegal timber trade has been linked to violations of tax and conservation laws, as well as broader transnational crimes. The United States is the largest importer globally of wood and forest products, such as pulp, paper, flooring, and furniture-importing $78 billion in 2021. Transaction-level data such as shipping container manifests and bills of lading provide a comprehensive data source that can be used to detect and disrupt trade that may be suspected of containing illegally harvested or traded forest products. Owing to the volume, velocity, and complexity of shipment data, an automated decision support system is required for the purposes of detecting suspicious forest product shipments. We present a proof of concept framework using machine learning and big data approaches-combining domain expertise with automation-to achieve this objective. We formulated the underlying machine learning problem as an anomaly detection problem and collected and collated forest sector-specific domain knowledge to filter and target shipments of interest. In this work, we provide the overview of our framework, with the details of domain knowledge extraction and machine learning models, and discuss initial results and analysis of flagged anomalous and potentially suspicious records to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach. The proof of concept work presented here provides the groundwork for an actionable and feasible approach to assisting enforcement agencies with the detection of suspicious shipments that may contain illegally harvested or traded wood.

Abstract Traversability across thin shells is investigated, with special attention devoted to the difference in tides related with different global properties of the geometries. While we have recently associated curvature jumps across infinitely thin shells to troublesome tides and consequent very restrictive conditions for a safe travel across a throat satisfying the flare-out condition in spacetimes with two asymptotic regions, now we find that analogous problems can be significantly reduced or even cancelled across shells joining an inner with an outer submanifold of spacetimes with one asymptotic region. We also show that, within this framework, cylindrical shells present an advantage over spherical shells.

Abstract Information on factors leading to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) treatment discontinuation is limited. This study analyzed 12,902 new PAH medication users to identify predictors of treatment discontinuation. Treatment by accredited pulmonary hypertension centers and combination therapy with PAH agents from different classes were less likely to result in discontinuation.

Abstract Introduction Pertussis, a highly infectious respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis, affects people of all ages. Older adults are particularly susceptible to its severe outcomes and complications. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, the incidence rate of pertussis among individuals aged ≥ 50 years was assessed during 2009–2018 using Clinical Practice Research Datalink and Hospital Episode Statistics databases, United Kingdom. Health care resource utilisation (HCRU) and direct medical costs (DMCs) were compared between patients with a pertussis diagnosis and propensity score-matched controls (matched on demographic and clinical variables). Results Among 5,222,860 individuals, 1638 had a pertussis diagnosis (incidence rate: 5.8 per 100,000 person-years; 95% confidence interval 5.5–6.0). Baseline (– 18 to – 6 months) HCRU and DMC were similar among 1480 pertussis patients and 1480 matched controls. However, there were increases in HCRU in the pertussis vs. matched cohort around the pertussis diagnosis (from months – 6 to – 1 to 5–11). The most notable increases (pertussis vs. controls) were in the rates of general practitioner (GP)/nurse visits (4.7-fold), clinical assessments (4.1-fold), and accident and emergency visits (3.0-fold) during the month before diagnosis and GP/nurse visits during the 2 months after diagnosis (2.5-fold) (all p

Abstract Traversability in relation with tides in thin-shell wormholes is revisited to investigate the possibility of improving recently noted restrictive conditions for a safe travel across a wormhole throat. We consider wormholes mathematically constructed starting from background geometries which are solutions of scalar–tensor theories as dilaton gravity and Brans–Dicke gravity. The advantages of working within such frameworks are studied by examining the dependence of the extrinsic curvature and tides at the throat with the parameters determining the departure from pure relativity; the associated behaviour of tides in the smooth regions of the geometries is also analyzed. Other related but different approaches within pure relativity are discussed in the appendices.

Abstract Traversability in relation with tides across thin-shell wormholes is analyzed. Conditions for a safe travel through a wormhole throat are established in terms of the parameters characterizing the geometries and reasonable assumptions regarding the travellers motion. Most convenient geometries turn to include the physically interesting example of wormholes connecting locally flat submanifolds as those associated to gauge cosmic strings. A certain relaxation of the conditions imposed and the corresponding extension of the set of admissible configurations is also briefly discussed.

Abstract The problem of the electrostatics in conical wormholes is revisited, now improving the background geometries with asymptotical flatness. The electric self-force on a point charge placed at different regions in the spacetime of a conical thin-shell wormhole connecting flat outer submanifolds is obtained and compared with the results of previous works. The study is also carried out in terms of a previously introduced analogy in which the effect of the matter shells on the electric field is reproduced by non-gravitating layers of charge located on the boundary surfaces. Besides, a better insight on the physical effects of a non trivial geometry is obtained by means of a further analysis of the electric fluxes across the wormhole throat and at both spatial infinities. It is found that the throat is traversed by a non-arbitrary and finite electric flux determined by the global topology, which is proportional to the charge of the source, and is characteristic of the asymptotically flat cylindrical wormholes regardless of the details of the throat geometry.

Abstract We study the massive scalar field of a charged particle held at rest in conical thin-shell spacetimes with one or two asymptotic regions. Resonant and stable scalar Green’s functions are characterized in terms of the coupling of the field to the trace of the extrinsic curvature jump at the shell. Stable coupling values, within the safety domain of the configuration parameters, are used to analyze the self-force of static point charges.

Hybridization and its relevance is a hot topic in ecology and evolutionary biology. Interspecific gene flow may play a key role in species adaptation to environmental change, as well as in the survival of endangered populations. Despite the fact that hybridization is quite common in plants, many hybridizing species, such as Quercus spp., maintain their integrity, while precise determination of genomic boundaries between species remains elusive. Novel high throughput sequencing techniques have opened up new perspectives in the comparative analysis of genomes and in the study of historical and current interspecific gene flow. In this work, we applied ddRADseq technique and developed an ad hoc bioinformatics pipeline for the study of ongoing hybridization between two relevant Mediterranean oaks, Q. ilex and Q. suber. We adopted a local scale approach, analyzing adult hybrids (sensu lato) identified in a mixed stand and their open-pollinated progenies. We have identified up to 9,435 markers across the genome and have estimated individual introgression levels in adults and seedlings. Estimated contribution of Q. suber to the genome is higher, on average, in hybrid progenies than in hybrid adults, suggesting preferential backcrossing with this parental species, maybe followed by selection during juvenile stages against individuals with higher Q. suber genomic contribution. Most discriminating markers seem to be scattered throughout the genome, suggesting that a large number of small genomic regions underlie boundaries between these species. A noticeable proportion of the markers (26%) showed allelic frequencies in adult hybrids very similar to one of the parental species, and very different from the other; a finding that seems relevant for understanding the hybridization process and the occurrence of adaptive introgression. Candidate marker databases developed in this study constitute a valuable resource to design large scale re-sequencing experiments in Mediterranean sclerophyllous oak species and could provide insight in species boundaries and on adaptive introgression between Q. suber and Q. ilex.

Abstract We consider the arbitrarily coupled field and self-force of a static massless scalar charge in cylindrical spacetimes with one or two asymptotic regions, with the only matter content concentrated in a thin-shell characterized by the trace of the extrinsic curvature jump $$\kappa $$ κ . The self-force is studied numerically and analytically in terms of the curvature coupling $$\xi $$ ξ . We found the critical values $$\xi _c^{(n)} = n/\left( \rho (r_s)\,\kappa \right) $$ ξc(n)=n/ρ(rs)κ , with $$n \in {\mathbb {N}}$$ n∈N and $$\rho (r_s)$$ ρ(rs) the metric’s profile function at the position of the shell, for which the scalar field is divergent in the background configuration. The pathological behavior is removed by restricting the coupling to a domain of stability. The coupling has a significant influence over the self-force at the vicinities of the shell, and we identified $$\xi =1/4$$ ξ=1/4 as the value for which the scalar force changes sign at a neighborhood of $$r_s$$ rs ; if $$\kappa (1-4\xi )>0$$ κ(1-4ξ)>0 the shell acts repulsively as an effective potential barrier, while if $$\kappa (1-4\xi )

Mayfly (Ephemeroptera) systematics has considerably changed over the years, but many questions have yet to be answered. The synergistic connection between traditional knowledge and new data sources, producing increasingly complex information, has become a compelling issue for modern taxonomy. Molecular tests and the use of reliable reference sequence libraries may constitute effective complements to the traditional method in guiding recognition of species and giving information about taxonomic incongruences which require further examination. In the present study, we sought to verify the current Italian mayfly nomenclatural system through DNA barcoding and relevant points to reliably manage the available amount of morpho-ecological and molecular data are discussed. We investigated COI (Cytochrome oxidase I) sequence variation in 163 individuals of Italian mayflies, 126 of which were previously assigned to 24 morphologically recognised species, and 37 could be attributed only to generic taxonomic entities (“sp.”, “cf.” or “gr.”). DNA barcoding statistical tests for species delimitation hypotheses based on genetic distances and inferred gene trees were integrated with GenBank searches and surveys of the historical literature to better understand the knowledge acquired on the status and diversity of the investigated taxa. Combined criteria to define three categories of reliability were then assessed. Concurrent data allowing unambiguous identification were attained for only eight species. High intraspecific genetic distances (> 3%) and a lack of reliable reference material or convincing taxonomic information evidenced 29 critical states, deserving further investigation. Solid species names, potential cryptic species and entities about which little is known are pointed out for a future upgrade/reorganisation of the taxonomy of Italian Ephemeroptera.

Background: Validated algorithms for identifying progression to metastatic cancer could permit the use of administrative claims databases for research in this area.Objective: To identify simple algorithms that could accurately detect cancer progression to metastatic breast, non-small cell lung, and colorectal cancer using medical and pharmacy claims data.Methods: Adults with stage I–III breast, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), or colorectal cancer (CRC) in the Geisinger Health System from 2004–2011 were selected. Evidence of progression was extracted via manual chart review as the reference standard. In addition to secondary malignancy diagnosis (ICD-9 code for metastases), diagnoses, procedures, and treatments were selected with clinician input as indicators of cancer progression. Random forests models provided variable importance scores. In addition to codes for secondary malignancy, several more complex algorithms were constructed and performance measures calculated.Results: Among those with breast cancer (17/502 [3.4%] progressed), the performance of a secondary malignancy code was suboptimal (sensitivity: 64.7%; specificity: 86.0%; positive predictive value [PPV]: 13.9; negative predictive value [NPV]: 98.6%); requiring malignancy at another site or initiation of immunotherapy increased PPV and specificity but decreased sensitivity. For NSCLC (61/236 [25.8%] progressed) codes for secondary malignancy alone (PPV: 47.4%; NPV: 84.8%; sensitivity: 60.7%; specificity: 76.6%) performed similarly or better than more complex algorithms. For CRC (33/276 [12.0%] progressed), secondary malignancy codes had good specificity (92.7%) and NPV (92.3%) but low sensitivity (42.4%) and PPV (43.8%); an algorithm with change in chemotherapy increased sensitivity but decreased other metrics.Conclusions: Selected algorithms performed similarly to the presence of a secondary tumor diagnosis code, with low sensitivity/PPV and higher specificity/NPV. Accurate identification of cancer progression likely requires verification through chart review.